Fresh cases against 40 ‘ghost’ smugglers in Moga

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, September 9

At least 50 drug smugglers, including two women, have been booked by the Moga police after they were declared proclaimed offenders (POs) by the judicial courts, while some of them jumped parole from various jails.

Talking to The Tribune, a senior police official said efforts were made by the PO wing of the district police to arrest them, but they were not found at their residences and possible hideouts.

Investigation by The Tribune revealed that 40 of these 50 alleged accused drug smugglers booked by the Moga police were never arrested even as drugs were shown seized from them. The police groped in the dark for the past many years to find out these “ghost” drug smugglers from whom drugs were reportedly seized.

Now, after registering fresh cases against them, the local police were still in the dark. “They still don’t know their whereabouts,” a source said.

Parmod Paswan of Hajipur district in Bihar was booked under Sections 20, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act at the City-I police station in Moga on August 29, 2010. He was not arrested at that time though drugs were shown seized from him. The sessions court declared him PO on June 9, 2012. Efforts of the local police to arrest him over the past 11 years have proved futile.

Lekh Raj of Saroli district in Bareli, UP, was booked under Sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act on March 24, 2015. He was declared PO on December 21, 2018. Hardeep Singh of Ludhiana was booked in 2007 and declared PO in 2012. Today, fresh cases under Section 299-A of the IPC were registered against all.

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